Do you think the "How Do I Look" topic should be abolished?

Though I admit to finding this section entertaining upon occasion and having asked a couple questions there myself, it is home to some of the most empty-headed people on GaG, and there's no shortage of competition for that. The same questions are often asked repeatedly, by the same or different offenders, within a single twenty-four hour period. Newsflash, simians: there's a search bar at the top of the screen where you can see the response to that same query the past 483,951 times.

I get that some people have legitimate questions about their style or appearance, but it's largely stuff like "Will I die alone because I have small tits?" or "I feel fat, am I fat?" *attached picture of skeletal teen girl with perfect facial features*

What say you, Gaggers? Do you really care what nationality the formless blob in the badly-taken photograph is? Are you really going to vote "average" in the self-conscious dude's poll, even though his face could curdle milk and terrify small children? Comment below.

Most Helpful Girl

I don't think that topic is necessary, so I'm in if they decided to remove that topic but at the same time I'm not really bothered by it. I block the topic if I ever see way too many "How Do I Look" questions on my feed.

Oh, it's definitely exploitation because of the types of pictures they allow. A female user can post completely naked but "strategically" cover her nipples and vaginal area and they'll leave the post up. Butts don't even have to be covered. They used to have a rule that it was okay as long as the person was wearing underwear but they got rid of that.

There was a teen girl who posted a picture of herself wearing a "bathing suit" that clearly showed outlines of her vulva, labia, nipples, and breasts and GaG refuses to take it down.

exploitationnoun1.the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work."the exploitation of migrant workers"synonyms: taking advantage, abuse, misuse, ill-treatment, unfair treatment, oppression"the exploitation of the poor"2.the action of making use of and benefiting from resources."the Bronze Age saw exploitation of gold deposits"synonyms: utilization, use, making use of, making the most of, capitalization on;"the exploitation of mineral resources"

Your choices are either profiting from someone else's work (not the case here) or benefiting from your own work, and posting on GaG can hardly be viewed as beneficial.

GaG's rule's state that topics fall under their standards of decency, and that users under eighteen can't post questions about anything more explicit than the content of a sexual education class. Outlines of genitals are hardly explicit compared to the nudity in a sex ed class, not to mention how absurd that idea is in general.

Yeah because guys totally don't notice that... When there's a distinct outline the posts are removed. There's also a guy who pops up every now and again who likes to post various pictures of guys with very visible erections whose posts are also removed.

That doesn't cover the "treating someone unfairly" aspect of the definition. The ditzy young girls posting themselves half-naked aren't bothered by it one bit, and GaG doesn't ask or require them to post those pictures. They get more hits because of it, sure. But no one's being cheated in the process.

It is treating them unfairly since it encourages young girls and women to post inappropriate and potentially dangerous and damaging pictures of themselves in an unsafe environment.

Moreover most of the real people who are actually posting pictures of themselves are doing so out untreated anxiety and self worth issues. By encouraging these people to post on GaG instead of seeking professional help, GaG is hurting them. For instance, there are several people who post their pictures asking if they need to lose weight only to later reveal they're suffering from an eating disorder or exercise addiction.

How are they "encouraged" to post their pictures? They receive nothing from GaG for them, and there's no incentive to post them here compared to any other site.

I agree that they should seek professional help instead of asking useless randoms on here, but that's an entirely different can of worms called "personal responsibility". A teenager or adult woman is not a toddler, and is capable of seeking out actual help if she desires it. A quick Google search will lead to all sorts of hotlines, support websites, and ways to get in contact with a therapist. Some will do the stupid thing and expect GaG to act as a counselor, but you can't help those not willing to help themselves.

Gag creates an atmosphere that encourages its users to share personal pictures as demonstrated by the all the admins using personal pictures. GaG also tries to present itself as a safe place to post personal pictures even though thanks to users like the virgin hunter who stalks women and girls from this site, RandomPerson, the convicted cyber stalker, and star_lord, the super creep who steals users pictures and reposts them without permission, that GaG is not a safe site. All of those users have been banned from the site at least once but they keep coming back and GaG insists there's no way to permanently block them.

The mods and admins may have pictures of themselves, but usually fully clothed. Either way, this comes back to the responsibility aspect. If people are really thick enough to post half-naked selfies just because of a "monkey see, monkey do" mentality and don't consider the possibility of it being a regrettable decision, then there's really no helping them.

As for the creepers, GaG is right when they say there's nothing they can do. Even an IP ban isn't difficult to circumvent. Unless they somehow got access to personal information, it's as easy as clicking the "block" button if they make another account. Life is full of weirdos, so you might as well get used to them instead of trying to bubble-wrap the whole internet.

TL;DR - the How Do I Look section is demonstrably not "exploitation", and people are liable for shit they post online. I don't know what GaG's policy on this is offhand, but I'm fairly sure they make no pretense of safety for those who post pictures.

You're babying the younger users far too much. It's beyond practicality to try to turn the entire internet into a safe space, and thus they'll have to have some discernment when posting personal info or pictures online.

I'm guessing you don't understand what role younger users need to play in protecting younger users.

You see, it's this kind of bleeding-heart, coddling mentality that produces the generation we have today - colleges are full of thumb-sucking students who start hyperventilating when someone disagrees with them. They've always been shielded from any possible danger, and haven't developed any judgment of their own. God help them if they actually encounter a difficult, stressful situation.

If I was one of the higher-ups in GaG's chain of command, I would not give two shits what kids posted as long as it was clear when they joined that I'm not liable for it. If these kids don't learn how to make good decisions now, they're just going to fuck up later on in a more crucial part of life - you know, like a job. It's been said that the child is the father of the man, and simply trying to ruin this site by childproofing it isn't a solution. They'll just post slutty pics somewhere else.

Websites that provide environments for children are always liable. It's like if you took you child to the playground and then saw a person trying to pull a child that clearly was not theirs into a van would you do something?

In what sense is GaG "liable"? Not legally, that's for sure. This is why websites have these nifty sets of terms and conditions you have to agree to before you sign up. Whatever activities you engage in, or are affected by, are none of GaG's concern. If you tried to take them to court because you felt maligned by someone on here, your case would get thrown out of court. It's like suing a gun manufacturer because you got shot by one of their weapons.

Once again, people might question GaG's standards, but they wouldn't be legally responsible.

Not to mention that you're entirely ignoring any other factors. Kids are told almost from birth in today's technology-saturated age not to share personal info. Parents should be involved as well, not letting their kids post anything that could lead to trouble (but good luck actually getting them to be parents, since they're trying to make the Internet a surrogate in that regard). Why can't you accept that some people will be credulous enough to land in bad situations, while others can use the same forum - GaG, in this case - responsibly and not have any issues?

Sure, you could strip down GaG to make it a perfectly sterile safe space for adult children and actual children, but that would only punish other users while the doofuses wander elsewhere to do the same thing. Some people are simply not smart enough to avoid danger, and big, bad GirlsAskGuys can't be blamed for their indiscretion.

In essence, there's nothing GaG can do to save dense teens from doing regrettable things, without unjustly kneecapping others. You don't just randomly stumble across a pedophile or murderer and hand out your address, and it's up to the individual to not make the absurdly dumb misstep of doing something like that.

But there are. Most there just ask about their hair, clothes, style or something similar. The skanky selfie variety probably doesn't make more than 15% of the question output.

As I said, you can't protect everyone without placing totalitarian control over the environment. It's like asking why we don't teach rapists and murderers not to commit crimes - because it would require an all-seeing big brother to prevent them entirely.

The best you can do is to teach self-defense and awareness, and the same applies to the Internet, GaG, and HDIL.

Two years or so ago, people begged for a topic where they could have their pics rated, so this was the result, lol. I've just blocked the topic but some of them still trickle through.

It only bothers me that there have been minors posting suggestive photos in there. I remember a while ago there was a 16 year old girl who posted a nude photo of herself, but it stayed up because the way she posed covered her breasts and vagina. And all these adult guys and some women were basically drooling over it. It was disturbing.

If you're wearing a bathing suit, I'm cool with that. Their rule about covered genitalia is there to prevent Google and other search engines flagging this site as a porno graphic site. This chick was wearing NOTHING but since no privates were visible, it stayed up. She was sitting and had her legs crossed and turned her body so you just got some side boob.

I'm aware. As I've said in other opinion replies, it doesn't bother me personally, but it does create some unnecessary clutter and attract people more vapid than GaG's standard posters, who spread to other topics as well.

What Guys Said 11

Why should anyone give a damn that you think their questions are inane? Why should any girl, who decides for whatever reason, that she wants to throw her tits up here for people to rate out of 10, care that you are uptight and are sick of bra and bikini shots?

If you find the "How do I look?" section, as it is, to be a section unworthy of your time, don't go there. Trying to get an active section shut down because you don't think it is being used as well as you think it could be used is stupid. Get over yourself.

@buttheadkakakak Maybe you're a little hard of hearing. I'm not saying there are NO guys like that, I'm saying they are few while the vast majority of egos here are chicks, and it is FAR more chicks filling up the "How Do I Look" category than guys. It's not even a contest.